Indian Country Today Media Network.com - Activismhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/tags/activism
enSupporters for NoDAPL Turn Out in Force at CNN Headquartershttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/11/23/supporters-nodapl-turn-out-force-cnn-headquarters-166552
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>News of the military-style response to water protectors resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline has reverberated across the nation, with marches of solidarity being held in every major city.</p></div></div></div>Wed, 23 Nov 2016 15:30:00 +0000theresa166552 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/11/23/supporters-nodapl-turn-out-force-cnn-headquarters-166552#commentsHealing Historical Trauma Through Spiritual Activismhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/07/13/healing-historical-trauma-through-spiritual-activism-165076
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>When <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Idle-No-More-Washington-467317416649876/" target="_blank">Idle No More Washington</a> Director <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3327107/" target="_blank">Sweetwater Nannauck teaches</a> wh</p></div></div></div>Wed, 13 Jul 2016 13:00:00 +0000leeanne165076 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/07/13/healing-historical-trauma-through-spiritual-activism-165076#commentsThe Week That Was: The Big Stories in Indian Country, May 15, 2016http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/05/16/week-was-big-stories-indian-country-may-15-2016-164492
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>A historic victory for treaty rights and salmon, a welcome declaration about a declaration, and the bison getting its due—that was just some of the good news that poured out of Indian country last week.</p></div></div></div>Mon, 16 May 2016 18:30:00 +0000theresa164492 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/05/16/week-was-big-stories-indian-country-may-15-2016-164492#commentsSongs for Water: Raising Money for Water Walks With a Concert in Minnesotahttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/04/30/songs-water-raising-money-water-walks-concert-minnesota-164315
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Likely it is part of the full circle—the water blesses the songs and the songs bless the water.</p></div></div></div>Sat, 30 Apr 2016 14:30:00 +0000theresa164315 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/04/30/songs-water-raising-money-water-walks-concert-minnesota-164315#comments‘Stop Disenrollment’ Posts Get More Than 100K Viewshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/02/29/stop-disenrollment-posts-get-more-100k-views-163530
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>More than 140 photos posted on<a href="http://stopdisenrollment.com" target="_blank"> StopDisenrollment.com</a>. More than 100 photos posted on Stop Disenrollment’s Facebook page.</p>
</div></div></div>Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:00:00 +0000kpolisse163530 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/02/29/stop-disenrollment-posts-get-more-100k-views-163530#commentsRemembering Trudell: ‘His Words Were a Gift to the Earth’http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/12/14/remembering-trudell-his-words-were-gift-earth-162760
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>In a time where our leaders have no direction or plans for our children's future, a visionary man has left this earthly plane to guide us from above.</p>
</div></div></div>Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:00:00 +0000kpolisse162760 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/12/14/remembering-trudell-his-words-were-gift-earth-162760#commentsWomen Warriors: Diné Protect Cultural Identity and Environmental Health http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/03/10/women-warriors-dine-protect-cultural-identity-and-environmental-health-159532
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>Editor’s Note: On Sunday March 8, International Women’s Day, we introduced you to some of the women who are part of the effort to reign in oil and gas development on the Navajo Nation.</em></p></div></div></div>Tue, 10 Mar 2015 14:30:00 +0000theresa159532 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/03/10/women-warriors-dine-protect-cultural-identity-and-environmental-health-159532#comments‘Death in the San Juan Basin’: Navajo Women Combat Unregulated Oil and Gas Explorationhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/03/09/death-san-juan-basin-navajo-women-combat-unfettered-oil-and-gas-exploration-159523
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>Editor’s Note: On Sunday March 8, International Women’s Day, we introduced you to some of the women who are part of the effort to reign in oil and gas development on the Navajo Nation.</em></p></div></div></div>Mon, 09 Mar 2015 18:00:00 +0000theresa159523 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/03/09/death-san-juan-basin-navajo-women-combat-unfettered-oil-and-gas-exploration-159523#commentsMohawk and Lakota Activists Light Fire for Climate Actionhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/05/12/mohawk-and-lakota-activists-light-fire-climate-action-154841
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The dispossession of Native peoples, the exploitation of land for resources and profit, and the suppression of indigenous spiritual practices have always operated in concert.</p>
<p>In a visit to Union last month, Tom Kanatakeniate Cook and Loretta Afraid-of-Bear Cook explored this connection as they shared some of their history and spiritual traditions. The practices they shared in Lampman Chapel, mindful of both nature and ancestry, evoked an implicit understanding of how intergenerational moral obligations are inextricably bound to respectful treatment of the Earth.</p>
<p><img alt="Photo via The Union Forum" class="media-image media-image-left" height="524" style="line-height: 1.6em; width: 320px; height: 524px; float: left;" width="320" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://d1jrw5jterzxwu.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/default/files/uploads/american-horse-1877-union_forum.jpg" title="" />The Cooks also visited with several Union professors, attended the chapel servic<em>e Speak Upon the Ash</em>es (led by participants in the 2014 Samuel DeWitt Proctor conference which nurtures, mobilizes and sustains African-American faith communities), talked with students more informally in the Social Hall, and provided wise counsel to those working on the conference Union will host in September: “Religions for the Earth: Spirituality and Faith-Based Action on Climate Change.” From their point of view, a good start to any initiative on climate would be to return the care of the sacred sites of the earth to the indigenous peoples who revere them.</p>
<p>Their heritage runs deep. Loretta’s mother and aunt (Beatrice and Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance) are members of a recently formed group called the <a href="http://www.grandmotherscouncil.org" target="_blank">Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers</a> who call for a “global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth.” Loretta, a Lakota elder who is also the great-granddaughter of Chief American Horse, explained that she is currently focused on two goals: the return of the sacred Black Hills (in South Dakota) to the Lakota and convincing the Vatican to rescind the fifteenth century papal bulls that expressly called for the devastation of Native Americans.</p>
<p>In 1455, Pope Nicholas V issued the bull<em> </em><em><a href="http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/indig-romanus-pontifex.html" target="_blank">Romanus Pontifex</a></em> in order to allow Portugal to claim land and “capture, vanquish and subdue” the non-Christians in Africa. On May 3, 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued a bull extending this right to Spain which was already busy colonizing the Americas, treating its people and its natural resources with the same proprietary hunger. On May 4, 1493, the very next day (who says the Vatican can’t do things quickly?), he responded to Portugal’s competitive complaint by issuing a follow-up bull<em>—<a href="http://www.nativeweb.org//pages/legal/indig-inter-caetera.html" target="_blank">Inter Caetera</a></em>—stipulating that Spain would of course not be allowed to take any lands claimed already by Portugal — or in other words, land that had come into the “possession of Christian Lords.” The United States legal system drew on this as precedent in establishing what has become known as the “Doctrine of Discovery.”</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/14/vatican-releases-tantalizing-glimpse-papal-documents-about-columbus-58448" target="_self">Vatican Releases Tantalizing Glimpse into Papal Documents About Columbus</a></p>
<p>There could hardly be a more poignant statement of the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery than the presence of Mount Rushmore in the sacred Black Hills. Even the name derives from the extractionist industries that drive the release of carbon emissions. The WPA state guidebook for South Dakota tells the story of the name this way: “Following the gold rush period of the late 1870′s, Charles E. Rushmore, an attorney from New York, visited the Black Hills in the interests of his mining clients. While touring the Hills, by horse and buggy, the attorney inquired the name of the granite crusted mountain. One of the party jokingly answered: ‘Why that is Mount Rushmore.’ And it still bears that name.”</p>
<p></div></div></div>Mon, 12 May 2014 19:10:00 +0000theresa154841 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/05/12/mohawk-and-lakota-activists-light-fire-climate-action-154841#commentsA Call to Action by Diné Women Activistshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/02/15/call-action-dine-women-activists
<fieldset class="field-group-fieldset group-opinions-body form-wrapper" id="node_opinion_rss_group_opinions_body"><legend><span class="fieldset-legend">Body</span></legend><div class="fieldset-wrapper"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Shouldn't we Diné older folks be saddened that our precious youth and grandchildren are now driven to “protest” regarding our collective need to honor and protect our sacred land, air, water, plants, animals, and, therefore, ourselves?</p>
<p>Shouldn't we perhaps be ashamed or embarrassed to see our children and grandchildren resort to such actions? What does this reveal about Diné culture that is supposed to nurture disciplined and healthy intergenerational relationships?</p>
<p>One Diné youth activist says our relationship to seventh generation principles of sustainability has been disrupted as shown by broken youth and elder relationships. It is heartbreaking, she says, to witness and feel the brokenness because we aren’t carrying on the strength and discipline of our tradition.</p>
<p>Another Diné activist writes: “I am thinking about the devastating effects of how the elders and my generation (I'm getting to elder stage) keep wringing our hands and moaning about language and cultural loss, blaming our young for it while averting our gaze regarding the consequences of colonialism.”</p>
<p>Diné youth struggle to contend with a legacy of tribal political corruption, the pain and irony of cultural contradiction, and an apparent future of more plundered land, water and air.</p>
<p>I recently witnessed six Diné young women openly grieve devastation caused by unabashed hydraulic fracturing in eastern Dinétah (northwestern New Mexico.) They connect this colonized and commodified practice with sexual violence against sacred feminine bodies that includes our mother earth. They observe a general breakdown of our Diné kinship system originally gifted by a Diné female holy person.</p>
<p>We don’t associate hydraulic fracturing with cultural fracture, but we should. Why is it that we are surprised at hydraulic fracturing in and around Diné country – literally in our yards – while our families live in isolation and separation? Why do we no longer see this as we raise our families and seem to forget to value intergenerational k’é (kinship) relations? What accounts for our silence and delayed reaction? Does our manifestation of unresolved guilt, sorrow, shame, anger or loss contribute to our cultural paralysis?</p>
<p>From a Diné youth activist lens, hydraulic fracturing is simultaneously a fracturing of our k’é and hózhó knowledge and practice. Hydraulic fracturing is yet another example of a deep assault on our being, our souls, our clan system and is a severing of our sacred relationship to our earth mother. This ought to be painful for all Diné. Why don’t we seem to feel the pain?</p>
<p>Diné youth activists are now seizing the moment to demand the right to healthy Diné identities and ethical, sacred ecological lifestyles, to speak the Diné language, to fully understand Diné traditional knowledge, to demand social and environmental justice that also embraces mother earth rights and to practice k'é or compassionate, interdependent kinship and community. They seek healthy relations not only with other humans but also with our beautiful earth and sky relatives.</p>
<p>They demand healing, decolonization, transformation, mobilization and practice.</p>
<p>I’ve heard youth activists wonder why we older folks hide our stories. Why we appear silenced, often unable to show our emotions, unwilling to teach our language, to help them practice our culture or why we criticize them for not speaking our language.</p>
<p>Shouldn't us older folks be feeling, caring for and affirming the hurt, anger and pain youth carry? Diné youth vision is not limited to hurt and pain either – they carry the love, integrity and respect for all living beings and understand our inherent rights to exist in harmony and balance.</p>
<p>Isn't it unfortunate that to demand a chance for peace, justice and happiness that Diné youth should have to call us, Indigenous and settlers alike, on our own colonized and contradictory political and economic behavior?<br />I am inspired by my conversations with Diné activists Kim Smith, Tom Greyeyes, Dana Eldridge, Orion Yazzie, Laura Red Elk, Whisper Light, Kim Howe and Heather Bowie, and I want to share a call to action from our young Dine’ women:</p>
<p>“Colonization and oppression affect old and young in almost identical ways. If not tended to, we wind up perpetuating almost identical oppression.</p>
<p>Let’s be conscious, knowledgeable, and empathetic to the youth struggle.</p>
<p>The hoghan is the place to restore compassion and love for each other.</p>
<p>We want a safe and sacred space for intergenerational conversation.</p>
<p>Please invite us to share our stories with you.</p>
<p>Don’t criticize us for not knowing our culture and language. It hurts. When this happens, a place to restore our language and culture becomes elusive. We feel thwarted before we even start.</p>
<p>When elders scold us for not knowing our culture or language, discouraged, we tend to reject the very things we want to know.</p>
<p>We project our pain and anger on each other because of unresolved historic, intergenerational trauma. We both need to stop this.</p>
<p>Colonial history is very small compared to the thousands of years of Diné resilience.</p>
<p>We want to see elders heal to be role models who confront the perpetrators in our lives.</p>
<p>We want to see elders tell their stories, to be vulnerable, to “get it out” and not hold it in. This becomes our healing process. When we don’t hear elders’ stories, we inherit the silence.</p>
<p>We pray for our elders not to fear what needs to be seen. We don’t want to see elders inventing reasons not to see themselves or to fear the pain. Everything we want is on the other side of fear.</p>
<p>Elder men need to care for younger men, too. We women sometimes tire of taking care of ourselves, while men do not seem to do the same.</p>
<p>Without healing, solutions obscure themselves. Healing leads to solutions. Neither youth nor elders can do this alone. We need each other.</p>
<p>Just as youth need to hold each other accountable for their actions, so do elders.”</p>
<p>Diné k’é practices are the ideal because they hold us together unconditionally through compassionate reciprocity. We look out for each other beyond the lure of money, power, control and corruption.</p>
<p>Let’s revitalize the matrilineal side of our culture. Diné men should not blindly follow a colonialized, Western patriarchal system. Such men cannot defend the hoghan. “</p>
<p>So, as a Diné grandpa, I ask you to love and support our young people, especially our young women, in their quest for Diné/Indigenous-style equity and justice that is rooted in our understanding of Changing Woman who helped</p>
<p>Diné understand themselves as good, disciplined, nurturing and strong protectors.</p>
<p><em>Conversations with Diné activists Kim Smith, Tom Greyeyes, Dana Eldridge, Orion Yazzie, Laura Red Elk, Whisper Light, Kim Howe and Heather Bowie inspired this article.</em></p>
<div><em><span>Larry Emerson is Tsénahabiłnii, Tó’aheidlíínii, Hoghanłání (paternal grandparents) and Kii’yaa’áanii (maternal grandparents. Emerson is a farmer, artist, educator, activist and scholar, living in the Tsédaak’áán community near Shiprock, Diné Nation (New Mexico). </span></em></div>
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<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A Call to Action by Diné Women Activists</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/health" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Health</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-full-name field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Full name:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Larry Emerson</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/larry-emerson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Larry Emerson</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/din%C3%A9" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Diné</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/activism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Activism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/kim-smith" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Kim Smith</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/tom-greyeyes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tom Greyeyes</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/dana-eldridge" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Dana Eldridge</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/orion-yazzie" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Orion Yazzie</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/laura-red-elk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Laura Red Elk</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/whisper-light" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Whisper Light</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/kim-howe" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Kim Howe</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/heather-bowie" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Heather Bowie</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author-image field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/author/larry-emerson-2" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Larry Emerson 2</a></div></div></div>Sat, 15 Feb 2014 13:00:45 +0000mazecyrus153566 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/02/15/call-action-dine-women-activists#comments